


(and one more for the road)

by Emmar



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 09:32:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmar/pseuds/Emmar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack Fair doesn't manage to shift the tide of the Wutai War, but he may have just knocked a few destinies in other directions, instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(and one more for the road)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic (and ensuing series) owe almost everything about them to [synecdochic](http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/) over on dreamwidth, and her own AU, _lullabye for the new world order_ , including several things that don't even come into play in this prologue.
> 
> Whilst the jumping-off point of this AU originates in Crisis Core, it takes only the original game as canon, with scattered pieces of the compilation as and when I feel like it. (That is, not a lot.)

**_zero._ **  
  
Damn, this is  _not_  what Zack signed up for.  
  
The Wutai war is messy, and he knew that going in, but this kid stood in front of him, with a shuriken nearly as big as she is... She can’t be more than nine, maybe ten at a push. He has absolutely no idea why she’s here, but if the way she just swore at him is any indication she’s probably a slum kid. (He hasn’t got much of a grasp of Wutaian, but he knows enough to recognise that she’s using common forms and words that his  _own_  mom would still wash his mouth out for.) Here’s the thing, though: Standing orders are to eliminate any and all Wutaian resistance, and while Zack’s a SOLDIER through and through... She’s a little  _kid_ , man.  
  
When he darts forward, grabs her wrist as she moves to swing her shuriken, his hand could probably wrap around her arm twice, but there’s muscle under there - the shuriken lands point down in the rain-soft ground and sinks a good few inches, when he twists just enough that she yelps and lets go. She struggles against him, but even the strongest preteen can’t stand up to a SOLDIER, Second Class, especially when he claps his free hand over her nose and mouth (Ramuh help him, his hand practically covers her entire  _face_ ), and it only takes a moment before she slumps.  
  
He looks at her for a moment, hanging limply from the hand around her wrist, and then mutters, “Oh,  _man_ , the general isn’t gonna like this.”  
  
But, well, General Sephiroth’s just going to have to deal with it, because it’s way too dangerous to leave her here and Zack sure as  _hell_  isn’t killing her. So he scoops her up, throws her over his shoulder - she weighs less than his  _sword_ , for the love of the gods - and starts the long walk back to camp, hoping like hell he doesn’t run into anyone on the way. This is going to be difficult enough to explain to the general, let alone anyone else.  
  
The night guard gives him a hard look as he come into camp, but Zack just sheaths his sword and holds up his hand and says, “I gotta talk to the general, man.”  
“Uh-huh,” the night guard says. “Anyone asks, I didn’t see this. Okay?”  
“You’re the  _best_.”  
  
It’s more likely that he just wants to cover his ass in case the general  _loses_  it about this, but Zack knows him a little and he doesn’t really think it’s likely. Still, that doesn’t stop him from hesitating outside his tent.  
  
“You’re lurking, Lieutenant Fair.”  
“Um,” Zack says, and steps into the general’s tent, shifting the girl’s weight on his shoulder. “I bought you a present?” he hazards, and watches the general turn from his desk and realize that the bundle over his shoulder is a child.  
  
“That’s a child,” says Sephiroth.  
“Uh. Yeah. Surprise?”  
  
Sephiroth just blinks, slowly, and looks from the girl to Zack. “Why,” he says, “have you brought me a child, Lieutenant?”  
“Well,” Zack says, shuffling his feet, “the thing is, she was out there, man, and, I mean-- I  _know_  what our orders are, but she’s so  _little_ , and it’s not... It’s not right, you know? And I couldn’t just leave her out there. I think she’s a slum kid. Or whatever Wutai has that passes for slums. So, uh. Tadah?”  
  
 _Oh Ramuh_ , Zack thinks,  _I screwed up, I **screwed up**_ , because the general is just staring and staring and  _staring_  and like Zack wasn’t nervous enough about this as it is, because this sort of thing could  _definitely_  get him a court martial, but what else was he going to do really? So he just stands there, kid still slung over his shoulder like a sack of flour or something, and waits for Sephiroth to speak.  
  
“Wake her,” is what he eventually says, and Zack blinks, because he’s not sure what he was expecting but it wasn’t that.  
“Uh, sure,” he replies, and sets the kid down in the empty chair, puts his other hand in his pocket and pushes a little magic into his Cure materia.  
  
The girl wakes with a start, and Zack clamps a hand over her mouth when she sees Sephiroth and opens it to scream. It’s an understandable reaction - Zack has never seen the general anything less than battle-ready, and even in the safety of camp he cuts one hell of an intimidating figure, and he  _knows_  how Wutai have painted Sephiroth, the  _silver demon of Midgar_ , so yeah, he gets it. But they don’t need half the camp bursting in because of one little kid screaming the place down. But apart from the screaming, she doesn’t even  _try_  and struggle, and Zack suddenly knows exactly what people mean by the expression  _scared stiff_.  
  
Sephiroth, for his part, just crouches in front of her and looks her in the eyes and then begins to talk in quiet, fluid Wutaian. The kid’s eyes get wider and wider, and eventually she puts one hand up to tap against Zack’s hand, not taking her eyes off the general.  
  
“What did you ask?” Zack hisses, quiet even though there’s no reason to be.  
“Her father’s name,” Sephiroth replies, still looking her square in the face, and Zack takes his hand away. Almost before he moves, the kid speaks, just two words that tilt Zack’s world on its axis.  
  
“Kisaragi Godo,” she says.  
“Oh,  _shit_ ,” blurts Zack, “oh, Ramuh, I fucked up.  _Fuck_.”  
“No,” says Sephiroth, still watching the girl. “This may be exactly what we need.”  
“What?”  
  
Sephiroth finally looks up, looks at Zack, and asks, “Parents care for their children, correct?” and the way he says it isn’t like he’s asking a rhetorical question, it’s like he really wants to know, like he’s checking he remembered right.  
  
“Well, yeah, mostly,” Zack answers, still nonplussed.  
“Thank you, Lieutenant Fair. I have a letter to write, and in the meantime, Kisaragi-hime is a prisoner of war.  _Your_  prisoner of war.”  
  
That’s an implication about as subtle as a brick; he caught the kid, he gets to look after her. The Imperial goddamn Princess.  
  
“Yes, sir,” he says, thinking,  _Ramuh, I’ve either just won us the war or got us a personal vendetta with the Emperor. Maybe even both_. This  _really_  isn’t what he was expecting when he got deployed out here, and oh,  _man_ , he’s going to have to borrow someone’s Sleep materia to make sure the kid doesn’t kill him in his sleep or something.  
  
\---  
  
Sephiroth sends out a missive that reads,  _for the safe return of your daughter, we require Wutai’s unconditional surrender_ , and gets one in return that says,  _Wutai has no need of such a daughter_.  
  
“It would seem,” he says, slow and deliberate, “that you are returning to Midgar with us, Your Imperial Highness.”  
  
To the kid’s credit, she lifts her chin and walks out like the princess she is, and Zack doesn’t hear her cry until she thinks he’s asleep, in the early hours of the morning.


End file.
